A Big Adventure

(this happened on 17th November 2010 in Hong Kong)

Stanley Market is something not to be missed if you visit Hong Kong.

We jumped into a cab and sped off to Stanley. Upon arrival we started to marvel over the market, which is a little touristy, but for once it does not remind me of a production line, some shops were actually selling hand made items which are unique and not factory produced T-shits.

With so many restaurants in the area hunger took over quite quickly, after some consideration we ended up in Rocksalt, which faces the seafront. Despite being November, it was quite warm around 24c and the style and ambiance is reminiscent of the French or Italian Riviera.

Lunch was:-   -

½ Dozen Fresh Oysters for (Tes) -

Crab cakes (me) -

Baked Sea bas with new potatoes (Tes) -

Fried Cod, Prawns & Squid in a basket

All washed down with a very nice Australian white

The service was excellent; the headwaiter was Italian and had the usual cheer of his fellow countrymen. Tes ate her oysters with relish and declared that they were very fresh. My Crab cakes were the best I have ever had, being full of whole flakes of crabmeat, rather than too mashed up. I tried Tes’s fish and it was melt in the mouth delicious. Unfortunately my fried fish, whilst good, was on the greasy side, I put this down to my poor choice rather than the restaurant, I really should have chosen something like the barramundi, which I only noticed on the specials menu too late!

Feeling fit after our meal we marched up and down the length of Stanley Seaside; this is a great place and it was still comfortably warm in the middle of the day despite being mid November.   We then roamed around the shops of the market again. This is quite an extensive market, and if you must buy those tourist items, then this is probably the best place in Hong Kong to do it.

Having worn ourselves out we decided to sit outside one of the very nice pubs and sink a few beers. This was wonderful, watching the world go by, with the seaside opposite, it was hard to believe we were on Hong Kong Island.

Dinner took us to a restaurant further down the front (Asian Curries), this was quite an awful meal, it was a sort of Café / Pub and we stupidly went for the Chinese food, which was faintly reminiscent of the kind of facsimile of Chinese which one comes across in take-away Chinese restaurants in the UK; which is a long way around of saying “crap”.

The starters were passable being a mixed platter of spring rolls, satay (which was like fatty meat with peanut butter) and samosas.   My main course dish was sweet and sour fish and it was disgusting, it was lumps of fish with soggy peppers in an insipid sauce.   Tes had Singapore fried noodles, which she gave a rating of 1 out of 10.   We could not wait to get out of the restaurant and left in a hurry.